Summer Pudding getting warmed up for winter

Saturday’s return to action of Summer Pudding, after a breather, is the first step in her 2021 Vodacom Durban July preparation. The superstar filly tackles a few plucky opponents in the Grade 2 Colorado King Stakes over 2000m of the Turffontein Standside turf and there’ll be a tsunami alarm if she doesn’t win.

Trainer Paul Peter’s four-year-old became the darling of South African racing fans in the twilight world of post-pandemic-shutdown, clocking up wins in the SA Oaks, Woolavington and Summer Cup to extend her unbeaten run to nine races.

The spell was broken when Summer Pudding went south for the Cape Town summer season and disappointed by running unplaced in the Paddock Stakes. It turned out she had a cough and a snotty nose, so she was returned home to Joburg to recuperate.

Peter reports that his ward is not 100% wound up this weekend, but is over the sniffles and will have little trouble tucking away that 10^th victory. Regular partner Warren Kennedy is in the plate, so there should be nothing to upset the equilibrium.

The Turffontein conditioner also saddles two other runners in the race – outclassed Heart Stwings and Portico – and jokes that there’s unlikely to be a problem with the pace.

In terms of class, the three further pretenders are not shabby. Zillzaal, Youcanthurrylove and Divine Odyssey are all good horses, but they are after minor prizes here.

The rest of Saturday’s programme looks like being another Sean Tarry show – following on from the champion trainer’s four winners at the Joburg city circuit last weekend. He could easily rack up another foursome, one of them in the supporting feature, the Grade 3 Protea Stakes for juveniles, with Under Your Spell, who has thumped her opposition in both starts to date.

The line-up has a few horses on the fringe of the top rank who are being sussed out by connections ahead of the championship season.

An early-season arrival from Cape Town is trainer Vaughan Marshall’s Silver Operator, who was quietly fancied by a few pundits for both the Queen’s Plate and the Cape Town Met – but didn’t quite produce the necessary on those days. The son of Silvano arrives in KwaZulu-Natal with a new look – blinkers added and testicles removed – and has been installed as the ante-post favourite for the Kings Cup.

Tristful, from the local stable of Tony Rivalland was something of a lurker during the winter of 2020.

He was second in the Kings Cup and in the Greyville 1900 – in the latter behind eventual July winner Belgarion. He didn’t make the July field but was runner-up in the consolation race, the Campanajo, before running a creditable fifth to Golden Ducat in the Champion Stakes.

Other interesting runners in this race are Myhopesanddreams, Guru’s Pride and Mount Anderson – all of whom are looking to make a step up.

 TURFFONTEIN SATURDAY

Race 1:

7 Last Song, 3 Sudden Break, 9 Two Fools Collide, 10 Whateveryoulike

Race 2:

9 Belle Of Belize, 2 Grappler, 3 Lazy Guy, 1 Eye On Tiger

Race 3:

1 Ra’ed, 2 Enigma Code, 3 Soldiers Song, 8 Infinite Warrior

Race 4:

5 Cordillera, 2 Wisteria Walk, 4 Rouge Allure, 6 La Luvia

Race 5:

4 Freedom Seeker, 2 Mind Reader, 5 Muleta, 6 Ulla

Race 6:

4 Under Your Spell, 2 Cold Fact, 7 Heavens Girl, 8 Social Image

Race 7:

4 Summer Pudding, 2 Youcanthurrylove, 3 Divine Odyssey, 1 Zillzaal

Race 8:

2 Duchess Of Now, 1 Twelve Oaks, 4 Madame Patrice, 10 Lagertha

Race 9:

11 Senescence, 2 Blue Spark, 14 Flying First Class, 8 Mirren

Pick 6:

2,4,5 x 2,3,4,5,6 x 2,3,4,7,8 x 4 x 1,2,3,4,9,10 x 11 (R450)

PA:

1 x 2,5 x 2,4 x 2,4 x 4 x 1,2,4 x 11 (R24)

GREYVILLE SUNDAY

Best bet: Race 2 No 7 Russian Rock

Value bet: Race 3 No 5 Zero Rate

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